Chapter 16 · Red Zone Crawl

"Step left. Now," Silas barked, his hand slamming into the small of my back to shove me against a damp brick wall.

I gasped, the air leaving my lungs in a sharp rush. The smell of him—cold rain and something metallic, like old coins—filled my senses. We were pressed so close I could feel the heat radiating off his chest through the heavy leather of his coat.

"What the hell—"

"Shut up," he hissed, his lips inches from my ear. He didn't look at me. His eyes were locked on the street ahead, scanning the fog. "If you make a sound, I'll let the choir have you. I won't waste a single soldier pulling a corpse out of the mud."

I glared at him, my heart hammering against my ribs. "I can handle myself, Renn. I'm the one with the scalpel, remember?"

"And I'm the one who decides if you get to keep your hands," he countered. He didn't move away. In fact, he leaned in harder, pinning me to the wall. The power shift was instantaneous; he wasn't just protecting me, he was reminding me that I belonged to him. Every breath I took was filtered through his space.